Vintage 101: The Top 10 Vintage Cards of 2024
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of Vintage 101! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're closing out of 2024 for this article series! That's right, it's the last article of 2024 for Vintage! With that we're going to look at the Top 10 cards for the format for the year and also look at the Challenges from this past week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Top 10 Vintage Cards of 2024
The end of 2024 is upon us, so I thought it would be fun to take a look back at 2024's major set releases and find the Top 10 Vintage cards from this year! 2024 had a lot going on, and unfortunately a majority of that was tied up in Modern Horizons 3, but we also had sets like Duskmourn, Bloomburrow, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and even Murders at Karlov Manor to take a look at. It was certainly quite a year.
With that being said, this is the Top 10 Vintage cards for 2024!
Honorable Mention - Nadu, Winged Wisdom
This one is a slow burn because Vintage is somewhat slow to change and much of the metagame is determined by what's going on week to week, but Nadu is a card that represents quite a power level. It hasn't fully caught on in Vintage just yet, but I've seen it pop up in some things, so I know the power level is there. I wouldn't be surprised to see this somewhere longer term down the road.
10 - Basim Ibn Ishaq
Basim operates largely in the same space that Psychic Frog does, as a threat that draws a card but can also get very big. It being evasive by just playing Vintage as a format is rather nice. This one unfortunately dropped to the wayside as players largely centralized on the Frog, but if the Frog ever gets restricted (highly unlikely) then maybe this guy could come back.
9 - Caustic Bronco
This was kind of a cool card with the Lurrus decks that kind of also fell by the wayside (or off the trail as it were). As sort of a Bob-like effect, Bronco saw a bit of play in the Lurrus builds until it just kind of... didn't. But it did win a few Challenges here or there!
8 - Waterlogged Teachings
MH3 introduced a bunch of Modal DFCs with lands on the back, and this one saw a lot of play mainly in the Underworld Breach decks. A land that could pitch to Forces, but also could find your Hullbreacher or Brain Freeze is kind of neat, and the cost is pretty effective at that.
7 - Glaring Fleshraker
Eldrazi as a deck has not put up great numbers, but if there's one Eldrazi out of MH3 that has put up a presence it's Glaring Fleshraker. The power of this card has shown itself not just in Eldrazi, but in decks utilizing Sensei's Divining Top as a way to combo kill to win the game.
6 - Consign to Memory
Consign is a card with a bunch of targets in a format with cards like Moxen and Black Lotus, but it can also counter a huge mess of triggered abilities across the format as well. Being able to Replicate counter a Thassa's Oracle trigger for example is quite good.
5 - Witch Enchanter
Blue decks weren't the only decks that got an MDFC that was tailor made for them this year. Initiative received what amounted to possibly the best upgrade they could ever get over Agadeem's Awakening. A land that could also be a cost-effective creature that already had a creature type the deck was playing and using Cavern of Souls for (Human) that also had a relevent effect stapled to it. This threat alone boosted Initiative greatly and streamlined the deck quite a bit.
4 - Sink into Stupor
This card seemed tailor made for the Jewel Shops decks of Vintage. A bounce spell for both nonland permanents and spells that also pitched to Force but could be a blue source untapped if you needed it? Yeah, this card proved so good that it became an instant four-of staple in Jewel Shops. It's cost-effective and clean.
3 - Surveil Lands
I still stand by the fact that these lands were not only some of the safest typed duals to print, but they added a new dimension of gameplay to every format they touched that has fetchlands in it. Adding a heuristic of being able to fetch for a land with card selection attached to it, and most especially card selection that involved the graveyard (surveil is so much better than scry in that regard) was such a net positive for every format and that includes Vintage. While it took Vintage a bit to catch onto it, it's these lands that will be among the most long-lasting additions to manabases.
2 - Vexing Bauble
So good in Vintage that it had to get restricted. Well, sort of. Bauble is certainly a contentious card for a lot of folks, and there's definitely a possibility that this card may not have actually needed restricting as its playability was on the downswing when it happened, but here we are and this is the world we live in. Bauble earns this spot primarily not because of power level, but because of just how contentious it was as a card to a lot of people. Outside of our number one spot, I don't think there was as much chatter about anything else during spoiler season.
1 - Psychic Frog
I don't think there's any surprise here. Psychic Frog has functionally wormed its way into Vintage so deeply that it is literally everywhere in the format. One of the best two mana threats that has ever been printed, Frog is the premier card to pair with Lurrus of the Dream-Den, and it has basically become the face of fair Vintage decks.
If there is any criticism to level at this card, it's that it and Lurrus have homogenized deckbuilding to the point where the only fair decks are Dimir or Esper based, leaving color combinations like Jeskai and the like out in the cold.
A Wrap on 2024
And with that, we put a wrap on 2024! What were your favorite cards of 2024? Was there something I missed? What do you wish to see in 2025? Let me know in the comments below!
Vintage Challenge 32 12/19
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 51 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Intitiative was the most played deck here, and it's win rate was also quite good. Esper Lurrus had less than 50% win rate despite having a good finish, and both Dredge and BUG looked good.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Initiative | 1st | The_Gerogerigegege |
| Dredge | 2nd | _Shikamaru_ |
| Jewel Shops | 3rd | wongdeck |
| Lurrus PO | 4th | unluckymonkey |
| Initiative | 5th | _Shatun_ |
| Esper Lurrus | 6th | ecobaronen |
| Intiiative | 7th | IpseVenenaBibas |
| Lutri Combo | 8th | medvedev |
Quite a bit of Initiative in the Top 8 here. It in fact won the event.
Definitely a powerful and very clean list overall here. Stillmoon Cavalier still looks like a nice option for this deck, given how well it lines up against a bunch of the big decks of the current format.
In Second Place we had Dredge.
It's always interesting when Dredge flops to a different threat or different set of flex options. Silversmote Ghoul is certainly one of those cards. It does come at a cost of some of the Forces in the deck of course, but the constant changes also keep Dredge in this space of always being different which then throws players off of being able to know what plan the Dredge player is on.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Lutri Combo.
Honestly, I think it's always kind of cool to see Lutri decks. They tend to be filled with all sorts of interesting cards given that you have to play the entire deck nearly singleton.
Vintage Challenge 32 12/20
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 32 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Dredge and Initiative were both very popular and weirdly despite good results from both their win rates were pretty meh. Doomsday did exceedingly well as did the lone "Other Shops" pilot.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | CrazyDiamond513 |
| Initiative | 2nd | Bezerra_da_Silva |
| Fleshraker Shops | 3rd | crK |
| Initiative | 4th | Will_Split |
| Tinker | 5th | PieGonti |
| Dredge | 6th | Munchlax446 |
| Initiative | 7th | _Batutinha_ |
| Initiative | 8th | jagers_master |
Quite a lot of Initiative here again, but at the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
This is quite a solid Doomsday list without even any real sideboard jukes to try to catch the opponent off guard. This deck is practicing the ABCDs... "Always Be Casting Doomsday"
In Second Place we had Initiative.
I think it's safe to say that Anointed Peacekeeper has found a forever home in the current lists for this deck, and a lot of that is based solely on the fact that it's great against Dredge. Making Bazaar cost mana to activate is so detrimental to their game plan that Initiative is in a great spot having four copies of that effect.
Also in this Top 8, the lone "Other Shops" player was on Fleshraker Shops.
There's no greater feeling than cycling two Sensei's Divining Top with a Fleshraker in play. It's absurdly hilarious and feels very Vintage.
Vintage Challenge 32 12/21
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 59 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Initiative was super popular here and its win rate was quite good. Lurrus PO and Dimir Lurrus also looked great, while Dredge and Esper Lurrus suffered hard.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Lurrus PO | 1st | unluckymonkey |
| Dimir Lurrus | 2nd | Tunaktunak |
| Doomsday | 3rd | CrazyDiamond513 |
| Lurrus PO | 4th | wiky |
| Initiative | 5th | izzy-wilde |
| Initiative | 6th | _Batutinha_ |
| Initiative | 7th | Magic_Dads71522 |
| Dimir Lurrus | 8th | O_danielakos |
So much Initiative. It's almost as if everyone decided to play that for a weekend! At the end of the event, however, it was Lurrus PO that won.
This deck is quite wild, honestly. It's a unique blend of Lurrus Control and PO, and it's been rather interesting seeing its rise to prominence in the metagame.
In Second Place we had Dimir Lurrus.
It's worth noting just how much hate this deck brought for Initiative. Not just Ray of Enfeeblement but also Virtue's Ruin showed up in the sideboard here.
Vintage Challenge 32 12/22
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 44 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Vintage Streamer's Discord.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Initiative was super popular in this event too and also had a good win rate. Lurrus PO was less than 50% despite having two strong finishes, and Doomsday did exceedingly well.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Doomsday | 1st | discoverN |
| Jewel Shops | 2nd | Peppembr |
| Red Prison | 3rd | MyPotatoes |
| Lurrus PO | 4th | wiky |
| Lutri Combo | 5th | medevedev |
| BUG | 6th | yoshiwata |
| Dimir Lurrus | 7th | bless_von |
| Lurrus PO | 8th | Rooney56 |
Fairly diverse Top 8 here actually. At the end of the event it was Doomsday that won.
One thing I will say that is nice about these lists is how much they've adopted things like the Surveil lands. Those have been a net positive for pretty much every format it feels like, and it's nice to see them breaking into Vintage as well.
In Second Place we had Jewel Shops.
Some of the sideboard options here are kind of sick. Kappa Cannoneer? Heck yeah. That's a solid and interesting way to beat your Null Rod matchups!
Also in this Top 8 we had Red Prison.
I too absolutely wanted to jam Headliner Scarlett in Vintage. This list kind of rocks. Only thing I kind of wish was here was Pyrogoyf.
Around the Web
- Justin Gennari posted a video about the MTGO Trophy Race last week. Check it out here.
- kindamtg posted a video on Survival! Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
Nadu Breakfast anyone?
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for your continued support of the column and join me next week as we continue our journey into Vintage!
As always you can reach me at my Link Tree! In addition, you can always reach me on the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the Vintage Streamers Discord.
Until next time!
